Discord Turns Down Microsoft Sale, Preferring Independence
The chat service isn’t profitable but it could be weighing an IPO.
San Francisco-based chat app Discord has turned down Microsoft’s purchase price, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. The tech giant reportedly offered over $10 billion USD to acquire Discord, well above the upstart app’s most recent valuation.
Though Discord hasn’t entirely closed the door on future discussions with Microsoft, it seems to be more focused on going public, though that also is unconfirmed. WSJ cites the hiring of Pintrest executive Tomasz Marcinkowski as the company’s CFO in March as indicative of a potential IPO, along with the company’s hefty seven billion dollar valuation.
With plenty of new users joining since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — it claims to support over 140 million active monthly users, many of whom utilize its high-quality audio services for gaming — Discord garnered $130 million USD in revenue in 2020, despite not being profitable. Still, sources told the WSJ that three other companies also spoke to Discord about potential acquisition as it was in talks with Microsoft. For now, Discord is content to operate independently.
Meanwhile Microsoft is staying busy on the gaming front, with rumors hinting that its Xbox division recently signed a contract with famed game dev Hideo Kojima.
